1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to a system and method for distributing electrical transformer capacity among different transformer users. More particularly, the system and method of the invention allows disassociated transformer users to utilize spare transformer capacity while insuring that the transformer owner retains access to the transformer when such access is needed by the owner. The invention provides a system and method for distributing options or rights of refusal to spare transformers among transformer users.
2. Background Information
Electrical power is one of today's most common power sources. Electrical power is used in essentially every home and business throughout the industrialized world. Electrical power generation facilities or power plants generate essentially all of the electrical power used in the industrialized world. Different types of power plants such as fossil fuel power plants, hydroelectric power plants, and nuclear power plants generate electric power. Regardless of how the electrical power is generated, each power plant must distribute the electrical power to the users of the electrical power. The distribution of electrical power requires the use of transformers.
Electrical power is distributed from power plants through distribution lines. As power is transmitted through the lines, the lines resist the electrical current and generate heat. The resistance decreases the amount of electrical power transmitted through the lines. Power companies desire to minimize the power lost in the power lines. To minimize power losses, power plants transmit electrical power at high voltages which decreases the amount of current required to distribute the electrical power. Power plants use step-up transformers to increase the voltage of the power generated by their generators. After the power has reached its destination, a step-down transformer is used to reduce the voltage to a usable level. The destination may be a local power grid, an individual company, or a specific device. Each of these destinations may require a different voltage and a specifically-configured transformer.
In the United States and Canada, there are thousands of electrical power generation facilities that are typically called electric utilities. Over the past hundred years, most electrical utilities have been regulated by a government that prevented the utility from competing against other electrical utilities for customers. As such, each electrical utility could easily pass on all costs to the consumers and each electrical utility could afford to purchase a backup transformer for each transformer in its distribution system.
Recent utility company deregulation has caused utility companies to review the cost of generating and distributing power to consumers because each utility company is now competing against other utility companies for customers. Deregulated utility companies thus cannot easily pass on a cost of each expenditure directly to the consumer. Electrical utilities are also reviewing their assets to determine how to generate income in addition to the income generated by selling electrical power.
In the newly deregulated power industry, each electrical utility must have a backup transformer that is immediately available for each key transformer in its distribution system. Immediate access to a backup transformer is essential because a new transformer can take months to be built, delivered, and installed. In the age of deregulation, the electrical utility must purchase power from a competitor if a key transformer goes down. The competitor will sell the electrical power to the crippled electrical utility at the highest possible rate. A single transformer failure can substantially reduce or eliminate a utility's profit. Backup transformers are thus financially essential. Backup transformers are also required by insurers. In addition to typical backups, some insurers require redundant backup plans.
Although backup transformers are essential, the actual backups are rarely used because only a small fraction of transformers actually fail from year to year. Furthermore, some transformer failures are immediate and unexpected while others are slow and can be anticipated. A problem in the industry is that no one can accurately forecast if a transformer failure will be immediate or slow. The same warning signs are generated by transformers that fail immediately as transformers that fail slowly. Thus, it is inefficient for an electrical utility to purchase a backup transformer when the backup transformer may sit unused for years while the primary transformer continues to function. On the other hand, the electrical utility cannot wait for the transformer to show signs of failure due to the extraordinary expense incurred if the transformer fails suddenly. The problem of replacing failed transformers is especially unique because there may only be one or two replacement transformers for a particular application in the world and the replacement transformer may have to be specially built by a transformer manufacturer with a long lead time.
In the past, electrical utilities and other transformer users (such as large manufacturing facilities) have purchased and stored large numbers of transformers for backup. Today's deregulated electrical utility companies cannot continue using this backup method and desire a new system for backing up their key transformers while allowing the users to derive income from their existing backup transformers.